Chinese airline to deploy Indian stewardesses

BEIJING: China Eastern Airlines Co. Ltd, the only Chinese airline that operates a direct flight to India, will deploy Indian nationals as airhostess for the first time on its Beijing-Shanghai-New Delhi flight from June 3, the company announced on Tuesday.

China Eastern, based in the eastern Chinese metropolis, Shanghai, announced that 16 Indian girls had completed professional training as air stewardesses and would work on the Beijing-Shanghai-New Delhi route.

They are the first group of Indian stewardesses ever hired by a Chinese air company, Xinhua news agency reported. Their monthly salary will be USD 800, a spokesman for the China Eastern Airlines said.

China Eastern Airlines opened flights from Beijing to Shanghai then to New Delhi in March 2002. Now there are four weekly flights on the route.

The air company also began to provide air services for passengers from Beijing and Shanghai to Mumbai and vice versa in April last year, increasing its flights between the two nations to seven a week.

To recruit foreign stewardesses is one of the measures China Eastern Airlines has taken to further localise its air services.

Currently, the company has recruited 100 in-flight attendants from foreign countries including Japan, South Korea and India. It is planning to recruit more attendants from Russia and the Philippines.